Honey Mustard & Veggies: The Baked Potato of the Week

If you're new here and want to understand the title and purpose of my blog, you can read my first post by clicking here. You may also want to subscribe to my RSS feed so that you don't miss further posts of interest to you. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll stop by often!

Yep, I’m still in love with having a baked potato for dinner once a week. Last week (which seems so very long ago right now), my simplicity group took on the baked potato theme. Our host for the evening slow-baked the potatoes per my instructions, and the rest of us brought toppings: cheddar, soft goat cheese, gouda, bacon, chives, sour cream, butter, steamed broccoli, sauteed mushrooms, grilled chicken, and I’m sure several other things that I’m forgetting. We all picked and chose among the options to create the potato we wanted. Delicious, and very filling: I highly suggest the set-up as an easy gluten-free dinner party option, if not the healthiest one ever.

We went a little lighter this week with our baked potato. Around the holidays, it’s certainly good to go light on a number of meals, because we know when we get together with people at this time of year for meals, light eating is not what’s usually on their minds.

So our baked potatoes this week were simple and healthy: topped with grilled organic chicken breast slices and steamed organic broccoli, yellow squash, and zucchini that had been tossed with a garlic-and-herbs seasoning. We drizzled a (locally sourced!) honey mustard I can eat (harder to find than you might think) over the top of the potatoes. Easy and tasty.

Honestly, though, the chicken was just a distraction. As many of you know, my husband and I ate entirely vegetarian at home until I discovered I’m allergic to soy, dairy, and eggs. In addition to those limitations, I have to be careful about eating things multiple days in a row, because I can easily create new allergies easily; and in this baked potato’s case, that meant that I couldn’t use black beans, which I had eaten the night before. But if I make this potato again, I’ll use black beans instead of chicken.

And for those of you who might think that honey mustard is a weird thing to put on a baked potato . . . I’m all about the condiments. For me, many foods are an excuse to eat what goes on top of them. And if I love something on a potato chip, that usually means I’ll love it on a baked potato as well–so I was pretty sure I’d be a fan of the honey mustard potato. And that makes me think, actually, about my next potato, the one I’ll make this week: I sense a BBQ theme coming on!

One of the more famous BBQ restaurants here in Birmingham, Full Moon, makes a killer baked potato with steamed broccoli, cheese, sour cream, butter, and BBQ sauce. (I’m salivating just thinking about it.) I do get weird looks from the meat eaters, but who cares when its so good!